I would say it’s not a religion.
But I’d also say its often a largely academic distinction.
Strongly held unfalsifiable beliefs regarding the nature of the creation of the universe and death, which people are willing to fight about.
There are people who believe in a God.
There are people who don’t believe in a God
There are people who believe there is no God.
The last two are not the same. It’s like the difference between “don’t like” and “dislike”.
That’s a mighty thin distinction between those last two, because it’s only meaningful within the context of Christianity (I’m assuming from the capitalization). One must accept God as a valid concept in order to explicitly believe that He does not exist. Are Christians people who don’t believe in the Milorganite god, or are they people who believe that there is no Milorganite god?
Christianity holds that there is only God, so it would stand to reason that they believe that there is no Milorganite god. Except, Milorganite is a brand of fertilizer, not a demonym. “Milorganite god” isn’t a valid concept, so explicitly believing that it does not exist is, well, not exactly wrong, but quite the waste of one’s time. And that’s how, for an atheist, not believing in God and believing that there is no God are pretty much the same thing.
I would say it’s not a religion.
But I’d also say its often a largely academic distinction.
Strongly held unfalsifiable beliefs regarding the nature of the creation of the universe and death, which people are willing to fight about.
There are people who believe in a God.
There are people who don’t believe in a God
There are people who believe there is no God.
The last two are not the same. It’s like the difference between “don’t like” and “dislike”.
That’s a mighty thin distinction between those last two, because it’s only meaningful within the context of Christianity (I’m assuming from the capitalization). One must accept God as a valid concept in order to explicitly believe that He does not exist. Are Christians people who don’t believe in the Milorganite god, or are they people who believe that there is no Milorganite god?
Christianity holds that there is only God, so it would stand to reason that they believe that there is no Milorganite god. Except, Milorganite is a brand of fertilizer, not a demonym. “Milorganite god” isn’t a valid concept, so explicitly believing that it does not exist is, well, not exactly wrong, but quite the waste of one’s time. And that’s how, for an atheist, not believing in God and believing that there is no God are pretty much the same thing.